Hunger strikes:
Hunger strikes were
WIDELY used throughout Romanian history to protest political and social
movements. I could not find specific examples from the 1989 period but there
seem to be some very recent hunger strikes by ex-government officials and even
teachers (by recent I mean in the past 5-10 years!).
Here is an example : http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/26/us-romania-mayor-protest-idUSTRE7AP0JS20111126
Hospital conditions:
Hospitals in Romania
The hospitals listed below
are the most historically relevant hospitals in Romania.
Colţea Hospital, in Bucharest,
was built by Mihai Cantacuzino between 1701 and 1703, composed of many
buildings, each with 12 to 30 beds, a church, three chapels, a school, and
doctors' and teachers' houses. In 2011, the hospital has been fully re-equipped
and is now one of the most modern hospitals in Bucharest.[4]
Pantelimon Hospital was raised in 1733 by Grigore II Ghica.
The surface area of the Pantelimon Hospital land property was 400,000 m². The
hospital had in its inventory a house for infectious diseases and a house for
persons with disabilities. The hospital is still operational today.
St. Spiridon Hospital, in Iaşi,
opened in 1755, described in a document from 1757 as the largest in Moldavia and Wallachia,
is nowadays the second largest in Romania.[5]
Filantropia Hospital had a capacity of 70 beds and was built in
1806-1812, during the Russian occupation. The hospital is still operational
today.
In 1830 the Brâncoveanu Hospital was inaugurated. The hospital
worked on the same principle as a free clinic,
offering various vaccines/medical tests free of charge. However, the urban
development led to the hospital building being demolished (and therefore its
activity ceased) in the mid 20th Century.
By 1985, despite Romania's huge refining capacity, petrol was
strictly rationed, with supplies drastically cut, a Sunday curfew was instated,
and many buses used methanepropulsion (they were mockingly named
"bombs"); taxis were converted to burning methanol.
Electricity was rationed to divert supplies to heavy industry, with a maximum
monthly allowed consumption of 20 kWh per
family (everything over this limit was heavily taxed), and very frequent blackouts (generally
1–2 hours daily).[citation needed] Only one
in five streetlights was to be kept on, and television was reduced to a single
channel broadcasting just 2 hours each day.
A propaganda poster on the streets of Bucharest,
1986. The caption reads "65 years since the creation of the Romanian
Communist Party", while in the background it reads "Ceauşescu
Era" and "The Party. Ceauşescu. Romania"
Gas and heating were also turned off; people in cities had to turn
to natural gas containers ("butelii"), or charcoal stoves,
even though they were connected to the gas mains. According to a decree of
1988, all public spaces had to be kept to a temperature of no more than 16
degrees Celsius (about 61 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter (the only institutions
exempted were kindergartens and hospitals), with some (such as factories)[citation needed] kept at no
more than 14 degrees (about 57 degrees Fahrenheit).
As demonstrated, hospital conditions were not the greatest but
officials made an effort to keep them well-maintained even during the
revolution.
Gifts for doctors:
Like many Baltic/Soviet countries,
gifts (bribes) for doctors were widespread for basic care. Salaries were not
the best, even for certified professionals, so bribing the doctor if you wanted
any kind of results was expected. Many patients died because their families
could not pay the bribe.
Food and cigarette
ration:
The
1980s: severe rationing and construction of the Palace of the People
Romania
continued to make progress. High rates of growth in production created
conditions for raising living standards of the people. From 1950 to the
mid-1980s, the average net wages increased more than eightfold. The consumption
fund increased 22-fold, and a broad program of building cultural facilities and
housing was carried out. Over 80 percent of the country's population had moved
to new apartments during this period.[15]
Measures
in the mechanization and chemicalization of farming helped to increase the
output of agricultural products. In 1950, more than 300 kg of cereals was
gathered per head of the population, whereas in 1982 this amount increased to 1
ton. Meat production increased from 29.5 to 100 kg.[15]
In
the late 1980s, the United Nations Human Development report classified Romania
as having had high human development. The life expectancy was 71 years,
literacy rate at 96%, and the Real GDP per capita at $3000.[16]
In
the 1980s, Ceauşescu became simultaneously obsessed with repaying Western loans
and with building himself a palace of unprecedented proportions, along
with an equally grandiose neighborhood, Centrul Civic, to accompany it. These led to a
shortage of available goods for the average Romanian. By 1984, despite high
crop yield and food production, food rationing was introduced on a wide scale
(the government promoted it as "a means to reduce obesity" and
"rational eating").
Bread,
milk, butter, cooking oil, sugar, pork, beef, chicken, and in some places even
potatoes were rationed in most of Romania by 1989, with rations being made
smaller every year (by 1989, a person could legally buy only 10 eggs per month,
half to one loaf of bread per day, depending on the place of residence, or
500 grams of any kind of meat[citation
needed]). Most of what was available were export
rejects, as most of the quality goods were exported, even underpriced, in order
to obtain hard currency, either to pay the debt, or to push
forward in the ever-growing pursuits of heavy industrialisation.
Romanians
became accustomed to "tacâmuri
de pui" (chicken wings,
claws and so on), mixed cooking oil (mostly unrefined, dark, soy oil, of the poorest grade),
"Bucureşti Salami" (consisting of soy, bonemeal, offal and pork lard), ersatz coffee (made of barley), oceanic fish
and sardines as a meat replacement, cheese mixed with starch or flour, and
untasty juices as Cil-Cola or Cireşica[citation
needed]. Even these products were in very scarce
supply, with queues whenever such products were available. All quality products,
such asSibiu and Victoria Salami,
high- and mid-grade meats, and Dobrudja peaches were designated as
"export-only", and were available to Romanians only on the thriving black market.[citation
needed]
By
1985, despite Romania's huge refining capacity, petrol was strictly rationed,
with supplies drastically cut, a Sunday curfew was instated, and many buses
used methanepropulsion
(they were mockingly named "bombs"); taxis were converted to burning methanol.
Electricity was rationed to divert supplies to heavy industry, with a maximum
monthly allowed consumption of 20 kWh per
family (everything over this limit was heavily taxed), and very frequent blackouts (generally
1–2 hours daily).[citation
needed] Only
one in five streetlights was to be kept on, and television was reduced to a
single channel broadcasting just 2 hours each day.
A
propaganda poster on the streets of Bucharest, 1986. The caption reads "65
years since the creation of the Romanian Communist Party", while in the
background it reads "Ceauşescu Era" and "The Party. Ceauşescu.
Romania"
Gas
and heating were also turned off; people in cities had to turn to natural gas
containers ("butelii"), or charcoal stoves, even though they
were connected to the gas mains. According to a decree of 1988, all public
spaces had to be kept to a temperature of no more than 16 degrees Celsius
(about 61 degrees Fahrenheit) in winter (the only institutions exempted were
kindergartens and hospitals), with some (such as factories)[citation
needed] kept
at no more than 14 degrees (about 57 degrees Fahrenheit).
All
shops were to close no later than 5:30 pm, in order to preserve
electricity. A thriving black market appeared, with Kent cigarettes
becoming Romania's second currency (it was illegal and punished with up to ten
years imprisonment to own or trade any foreign currency), used to purchase
everything, from food to clothes or medicine. The quality of health care dropped
substantially, as drugs were no longer imported.
Life after revolution (
I covered this topic in previous posts)
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